The present invention relates to information and advertising signs and more particularly to a new arrangement for supporting one or more display sign assemblies that include a vertical post, installed in or on the ground, concrete, macadam, or other surface material.
One result of our societies dependence on the automobile is the growing popularity of drive-through and parking facilities for all kinds of services including convenience stores, fast food services, fueling stations, banking, etc. Designs of these facilities, by choice or by law, include many safety devices intended to avoid or reduce the consequences of automobile impact on walls, curbing, auto stop blocks, and equipment such as automatic vacuum tube canister delivery systems, gasoline dispensers, fast food ordering speaker and communications systems, etc. To avoid or reduce auto collision efforts, designers commonly install bumper guard pipes to protect facilities and equipment from impact. These guards commonly include 4 to 8 inch steel or aluminum pipe painted white or red, capped or filled with a concrete plug, and installed on or into or adjacent the driving surface and standing 3 to 4 feet above the surface. Although these guards provide some degree of impact protection, they provide poor visual protection to the contiguous facility or equipment. In addition, these standard guards provide no advertising value for the facility or services or products provided there.
Some progress and improvements have been made by the present inventor and assignee hereof in combining the U-shaped pipe guards in front of fueling dispensers with a sign assembly mounted on the center leg thereof. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/333,230, filed Jun. 14, 1999 owned by the present assignee.
However, the need exits for a sign assembly that can easily and efficiently mount to a vertical pipe guard regardless of the spacing between adjacent vertical pipe guards or alternately reliably mount in stand along fashion with the same elements used to secure the sign assembly to a pipe guard.